ZaReason Preparing Ubuntu Server, Netbook

ZaReason is preparing to expand its portfolio of Ubuntu systems -- including a new server and netbook, according to CEO Cathy Malmrose. But that's not all. US-based ZaReason also continues its push deeper into the European computer market.

I traded email with Malmrose about Ubuntu 9.04 and ZaReason's ongoing business strategy. Here's a look at our exchange:

WorksWithU: Ubuntu 9.04 -- we're about a month since the release's launch. How are customers reacting to the operating system? Are you seeing any trends or customer feedback? Malmrose: People have been generally pleased with 9.04. For most people, it was a mild improvement. We hear comments like, "Hey, they added a new theme" and "There's unified notification now." The improvements are the gentle background types that make the experience with Ubuntu better in a barely noticeable way. Looking long term, this is an ideal way to improve it -- gradually building in improvements.

We are seeing a small percentage of people having crashes with the Adobe Flash plugin, so we're keeping a close eye on updates for that.

WorksWithU: How is ZaReason's expansion into servers going? Malmrose: Next up will be a tower model in the very near future.

WorksWithU: How is your expansion into Europe going? Malmrose: I just wrote an article for OSBR which contained an interview with Belinda Lopez. (She's a great contact for international feedback.) She and others have confirmed what I have seen so far -- Europe has embraced F/LOSS far more openly and successfully than we have in the US. I am looking forward to EU expansion being the most enjoyable part of ZaReason's future.

To help this expansion, we spent a few weeks in Asia talking to OEMs. Hardware is a fascinating market and I am looking forward to seeing hardware builders working smarter in the future, especially in regards to higher quality design.

WorksWithU: Do you plan to introduce a netbook?Malmrose: Yes, we'll have our own netbook soon. The question is whether to launch now with the current Atom platform or wait for the new Pine Trail.

Meet Partimus

WorksWithU: Shifting gears a little bit, tell me more about Partimus. I think it will interest our readers.Malmrose: Partimus launched in 2006 as a non-profit to support effective use of technology in education. The initial motivation was to support software development for OLPC, but we couldn't find a way to latch on to OLPC effectively. Since then we have done small projects shipping desktops from ACCRC to schools, helping set up labs for schools, and other projects, one funded through a Systers grant.

I can announce our current initiative -- we are setting up the framework for Partimus (which means "we share" in Latin) to function as a donation center to connect nearly new laptops and desktops with new owners who can show obvious need for the assistance. The Partimus CTO, Maile Urbancic, helps run university housing at the University of California at Berkeley and through her work she has seen many impoverished students, especially graduate students, who would benefit greatly from a laptop that could help them through a few years of school. On my side, I have seen inventory go unused, depreciating every day that it sits on our shelves. Laptops that are used for shows, demo models and other lightly used systems can be donated to people who could put them to good use.

Several economic and societal factors are coming together to make this an excellent time to launch the Partimus branch that can be the go-to donation center for hardware vendors who want to keep their inventory tight like we do. Currently, the plan is to have one laptop posted at time with people submitting a short essay explaining their need. The end result will be to not only donate systems to good new "adoptive" homes, but to encourage others to do the same unofficially in their own social circles.

Next Moves

That concludes my email exchange with Malmrose. I plan to check out Partimus based on my own personal interests, and I'll be watching ZaReason for the official tower server and netbook announcements.

Discuss this Article 11

Jef Spaleta (not verified)

on May 27, 2009

Here that question I keep asking...
Is Zareason contracting with Canonical for OEM support services? I don't see Zareason listed in Canonical's partner database as a hardware builder or a solutions provider..even as an affiliate. Then again I don't see Dell listed either, so the Canonical partner database may not be well maintained with regard to hardware builders.
When you purchase an Ubuntu pre-installed system from Zareason does any portion of that purchase price go to support continued Ubuntu development? Does Zareason staff anyone from the Ubuntu Core developmers or a member of MOTU?
Zareason doesn't appear to yet offer Canonical support as part of the purchase even for its current server product. Are Zareason customers not interested in official software support options or landscape based management services? Is community based software support good enough for Zareason's customer base? Even its servers?
Can Canonical build wide spread interest in its services if hardware builders like Zareason aren't helping out as channel partners and advertising the value of those services to customers?
-jef

Joe:
As i mentioned before in a comment here system76 is at least offering Canonical support on its server offerings as part of the purchase process. Which is a very good thing to see. Even if system76 doesn't end up paying Canonical for OEM oriented services, they are exposing customers to Canonical support options as part of the purchase. That at least drives awareness of the services and the pricing.
If you are going to follow up with system76, ask them about what percentage of their server customers are purchasing that optional support at system purchase time. I don't have any idea what their sales volume is like, but as a percentage that should be at least a reasonable concrete indicator of Canonical service uptake more generally.
You'll want to think about asking to see if these hardware resellers will be helping Canonical advertise its training services in some fashion. How many new desktop or netbook system purchasers know Canonical offers online Ubuntu desktop courses? Isn't the time of purchase the best time to tell people about that sort of introductory training? It might even be a good price bundled item in some situations.
Or even better question, will be looking at bundling UbuntuOne subscriptions options into their desktop/netbook purchasing process. Though that's going to something to ask around the time of the next Ubuntu release to get a solid answer.
-jef

@Jef: Are you saying that ZaReason isn't capable of offering customer support themselves? I sincerely hope not.
While I do understand the reasoning behind offering official Canonical support, in these tough economic times, do you honestly think people would be willing to shell out additional funding for that sort of thing? I myself wouldn't.

Thomas:
That's the heart of the issue. Are Canonical's services valuable enough to pay for? And if Canonical's services aren't..but partner services are...are those partners using that revenue to sustain Ubuntu as a project instead of relying on Canonical to do it for them?
I am not saying that ZaReason is incapable of offering their own support. I'm not even saying that ZaReason can't provide better quality support than Canonical. But does any of ZaReason's revenue get spent on helping pay for critical bits of the Ubuntu project day-to-day operations?
What I am saying is that Ubuntu is not sustainable in the long term without Canonical generating sufficient service revenue. Whether ZaReason or other third parties generate revenue or not by leveraging Ubuntu is immaterial to the question of Ubuntu sustainability. Partner revenue isn't paying for core developer salaries and isn't paying for the infrastructure costs that keep Ubuntu going. Canonical revenue pays for this.
Everyone needs to understand that fact. Everyone needs to respect that fact. There is no free lunch.
And I'm not saying that everyone should go out and buy Canonical services just because its a nice thing to do. Either Canonical's services are valuable or not...there's no getting around that question. And its a question everyone seems really reluctant to ask because its overtly critical and can't be interpreted as some sort of hug. Canonical seems to be big on hugs and not so big on critical feedback about their business. It's almost like Canonical is staffed by Care Bears sometimes and not people who need to worry about how their salaries are being paid. Maybe they are Care Bears, maybe they do live on hugs. We live in strange times.
The technical laypress continues to fall down on the job when it comes to evaluating the value of individual Canonical services...content with parroting what Canonical puts in a press release and not venturing beyond that glowing prose. Which is too bad really, because it just leaves the services to languish without constructive feedback to make them more compelling.
What I am saying is that partners at the very least need to think about exposing potential customers to Canonical services as a part of helping to make sure Ubuntu ecosystem is sustainable. The services will stand up or fall down on their own..but people do have to know they exist to even be considered for evaluation. And when the services aren't compelling, Canonical needs to be told what service changes need to be made to make them compelling. Ubuntu is not going to survive if Canonical support services are widely ignored and do not evolve into things "enough" people are willing to pay for.
-jef

@Jef: I looked at some of Canonical's support packages, and I've got to say, I was correct in my initial assessment. I'm not shelling out that much money (and it appears to be aimed more towards businesses and enterprises). $250 for an entire year? It might be cheaper than other companies out there, but I personally wouldn't be paying for that type of thing. Again, they appear to be aiming more towards the business/enterprise arena, not individual desktop and small business users, which is the territory that ZaReason is mostly in. I know the $250 is for basic support, but still. That's quite a bit of money.
Also, did you take a look at this?
https://www.zareason.com/shop/pages.php?pageid=7
ZaReason does point to Canonical's site on the software end of things.

Thomas:
I'm not going to comment on the value proposition of a given Canonical service. That's for each potential customer to decide. But if you are going to comment from your perspective, then its best to include a statement as to what sort of services you would pay for. Canonical could use that sort of information. Willing to pay for UbuntuOne beta? Willing to pay for online Desktop training?
I'm not suggestion that Canonical has a good direct to end-user desktop/netbook support option at the moment. But their support options do make sense for a business server. System76 only offers Canonical support on the server line..and that is probably a reasonable way to approach it and something ZaReason should probably be doing as to help raise awareness of Canonical's support options.
But Canonical does offer other services. The online desktop training probably being the most mature end-user oriented service at the moment. But do enough people know about it?
I doubt it. Can the OEMs help do more to build awareness and customers for it? Probably.
And then there is OEM level services..services which appearently let OEMs like ZaReason escalate software support on the behalf of their customers to Canonical staff if they choose to contract Canonical for those services. And services like dedicated OEM repositories and OEM specific packaging services. Is ZaReason contracting with Canonical at the OEM level and thus helping to support critical Ubuntu staffing and infrastructure?
Both Dell and HP contract with Canonical for some level of OEM support. No details of the arrangement are not made public so commenting on the extent that Dell or HP contract with Canonical is difficult to do with accuracy unless you are having casual conversations with Canonical's support staff and they let their frustrations with OEM service adoption show:
http://doctormo.wordpress.com/2009/04/16/ubuntu-and-dell-support-breakdown/
"Dell doesn’t have a contract with Canonical for complex queries (tier 3) calls to go to Canonical (not that this issue really needed tier 3). I’m sure Canonical would love to have such a deal in place, but Dell is unwilling to pay the price for it (although if the price is anything like that charged to end users, I’m not too surprised). So some of their support staff have been directing people to Canonical support, even though Canonical can’t do anything for Dell customers other than sell them end user support. I know this because the XPS owner mentioned above had this happen to her."
Yes ZaReason does point to Canonical after it points to irc!
That's a great way to upsell your partner's support services.
When irc fails you..contact Canonical so you can pay through the nose. I wouldn't hold that up as to doing Canonical's support model any particular favors. And it definitely isn't suggestive that an OEM level support agreement is in place. That's probably the most worrisome part of it. Canonical's support services are geared towards contract with OEMs and not directly with retail end-users. If OEMs aren't actually contracting for those services..that's a problem...and it sort of leaves end-users stuck in the middle when they do have a major software problem.
All of this begs the question, who's buying Canonical services and which services are they buying? Canonical's service revenue is the only thing that can sustain Ubuntu long term..its how Canonical has constructed the framework on which Ubuntu sits.
-jef